The BBC has been able to confirm more than 50,000 Russian military killed in the war in Ukraine. But the actual number of Russian deaths is likely much higher.
Over the previous 12 months, the number of occupant casualties increased by 25% compared to the first year of the full-scale invasion. This coincided in part with Moscow's ‘meat grinder’ strategy.
To identify the dead occupiers, the journalists used open data, media texts, information from social media and analysis of new graves. The analysis does not include the deaths of Russian forces in occupied Donetsk and Luhansk. If we add them up, the number will be even higher.
"More than 27,300 Russian soldiers have been killed in the second year of hostilities - according to our data - a reflection of how territorial gains have been achieved at a huge human cost," the article says.
The total number of deaths - more than 50,000 - is eight times higher than the only official public confirmation of the number of deaths that Moscow has ever given - in September 2022.
A surge in Russian deaths occurred in January 2023, when they launched an offensive in the Donetsk Region. The next wave began in the spring, during the battles for Bakhmut, where the Russian army was assisted by mercenaries from the Wagner PMC . According to the journalists, half of the mercenaries from among the criminals had been in the war for about three months. The mercenaries recruited by the Russian Ministry of Defence tended to live a month less.
According to the Ukrainian General Staff, Russia's losses during the full-scale war exceed 420,000. But this number includes not only the dead but also the wounded.